Elvis Costello - I’m Your Toy
from Almost Blue (1981)
My good friend Connor sent me this cover by Elvis Costello of Gram Parson’s “Hot Burrito #1 (I’m Your Toy)”. He writes:
All my country music listening comes through Elvis Costello— in fact, Costello has basically been the portal through which I discovered most music. He’s kind of a gateway drug in that respect— I’d say 90 percent of the music I really like I can in some way trace back to first listening to Costello. …
In 1981, he went to Nashville and recorded an album of country songs produced by Billy Sherill (who was rather bemused at the idea of this limey punk rocker singing what he considered to be a bunch of “worn out” country standards.) It ended up being a big hit in the UK, but it was generally viewed as a weird thing for him to do, as it pre-dated the whole “alt-country” trend and he was a little bit ahead of the curve in that respect. (During his first tours of the US a couple of years earlier, he was told to hide his George Jones tapes on the tour bus so as not to “confuse” visiting rock journalists.)
… I viewed this country album of his as a weird anomaly — I had ZERO interest in country music, and all the typical anti-country biases that come from growing up in the midwest but not exactly identifying with the “rural” culture or worldview. … It was only a year or two later — once I’d practically worn out all the other Costello albums that I gave ALMOST BLUE another listen and realized that some of these songs were really powerful. So I started listening to a little bit of Gram Parsons, a little bit of Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams, etc.
Fitting, I think, since Gram’s version of this song was my own introduction to country music. And Elvis does this song proud.
